Asia Hunger

I have been here for 2 days now and my Asia Hunger is settling in rapidly. Asia Hunger is the state of being hungry all the time (Phil, if you are reading this - withhold your laughter) despite eating all the time. Yesterday I ate:

• a bowl of noodle soup
• a bag of pineapple
• some rice chips
• a plate of more noodles and more noodles
• a massive cup of grass jelly drink
• a bag of dragonfruit
• rice
• about 10 different dishes with that rice
• fruit

Add to that about 3 litres of water, and I think that's quite substantial - but I would have been quite happy to eat again before bedtime. This morning I've had breakfast and a cup of tea already, but I'm already thinking about lunch. In fact it is all I can do to resist making myself some instant noodles before I go to classes.

Inexplicably, I have found in the past that despite the presence of Asia Hunger, Asia makes me thinner. Worms? Genetics? Who knows?

I started Thai language classes yesterday. I'm finding the pronunciation and grammar (what grammar?) quite easy, but I hate that stiltedness when first learning a new language, just having to think about each word so hard before saying it! Plus there is waaaaaay too much vocab to pick up. Still - yesterday was the first lot of 4 hours in a course of 120 hours' total language training, so surely by the end of June I should be able to get by. I think it's about trying to think in Thai. The slowness is in the mental translation.

I have a bruised head. The right hand side of my forehead is bruised because I got hit on the head with a metal tray on Friday night at Tutto Bene, and the back of my head is bruised because I got butted by a wooden goat last night at dinner. Don't ask.

Oops - I'm off to Thai classes now. I'll write more and post some photos tonight.

EDIT: (after finishing classes)

God I have eaten so much already today. I think about food all the time. It's as if I'm worried I won't find my next meal or something. Oh well. It's all good.

This morning we went to the main market in Chiang Mai (not the night bazaar, but the biggest market here) as part of our "cultural orientation". It was great - I picked up more essentials like a rain poncho, knife, more fruit (rambutans, jackfruit and mangosteens - weep, people, WEEP), jasmine tea. I'm pretty much all set up here now with the little things I need (particularly in relation to feeding myself). My only real complaint is that yesterday my air conditioner inexplicably started to make an alarmingly loud, ratchety noise whenever turned on. It still seems to cool, but I keep thinking it might be on the verge of exploding. Or something.









A few of my new "essentials" - note matching Hello Kitty mug and fork/spoon set; this air conditioner looks harmless enough but turn it on and it produces a whirring, squeaking, percussive, ratchety cacophony.

I'm particularly interested in comparing Chiang Mai with my experiences in Vietnam. My impression is that the culture is very similar, minus the communist government (even during the coup apparently it was just life as usual, plus or minus a few armed police around the cities) and with more money. The essentials are much the same. People do not wear their pyjamas out on the streets here though, much to my disappointment.



My accommodation here is right near the university and as such is a little west of the city centre. I think (although I may be wrong) that it is a reasonably well-off part of town - lots of fairly large houses in good condition, large blocks of land, pretty clean and spacious really. Lots of you will know that I love love LOOOOVE Saigon, so I kind of liked heading into the middle of the city today and nosing around the more cramped, crowded pockets - more varied, more colourful, more bustling. Overall Chiang Mai is quite beautiful - the mountains are useful for this cause. I've not taken many photos yet but will attempt to rectify in the next few days. Have so far resisted taking pictures of everything I eat (if I did this it would mostly be to torment my mother anyway). Today I had lunch at the university. It cost me 15b (about 55 cents).

The other thing that has really stood out so far is the incredible reverence for the king. Everyone wears yellow t-shirts +/- the royal insignia, there are billboards and tributes everywhere. It's pretty cool, actually.

I've loved getting all your emails in the last couple of days, and this blog is getting quite a few more hits (what? you think it's more interesting now that I've actually left Australia?), so it's nice to know that people are interested. Plus my counter software tracks all the visiting IP addresses so I know who you all are, too. *stalker*